1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a carriage device implementing electrical conduction between an ink cartridge and a circuit substrate by using a connector for reading information on an ink cartridge housed in a carriage through the circuit substrate and a recording apparatus having the cartridge device.
In addition, the invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus such as an ink jet recording apparatus performing recording (ejecting liquid) on a recording medium (liquid ejecting medium) by ejecting (discharging) liquid such as ink from its head.
Here, the term “liquid ejecting apparatus” is used for referring not only to a recording apparatus, such as a printer, a copier, or a facsimile machine, having an ink jet recording head for ejecting ink from the recording head so as to perform recording on a recording medium but also to an apparatus that causes liquid to adhere onto a medium, corresponding to the recording medium in the above-described recording apparatus, by ejecting liquid selected depending on the use of the apparatus in place of ink onto the medium from a liquid ejecting head corresponding to the above-described ink jet recording head.
Examples of the liquid ejecting head other than the recording head described above are a color-material ejecting head that is used for manufacturing a color filter for liquid crystal displays or the like, an electrode material (conduction paste) ejecting head that is used for forming an electrode in an organic electroluminescent (EL) display, a field emission display (FED), or the like, a bioorganic compound ejecting head that is used for manufacturing bio-chips, and a sample spraying head as a precision pipette.
2. Related Art
In JP-A-2004-358912, there is disclosed technology in which a head cartridge can be attached/detached to/from an ink tank that can be attached/detached to/from a carriage of a printer apparatus, the printer apparatus having a memory device and a circuit substrate that is connected to an electrical contact terminal disposed in the carriage, the circuit substrate connected to the memory device of the ink tank being configured so as to be fixed to the electrical contact terminal disposed in the circuit substrate, and a part of a support member of the electrical contact terminal being fixed to an area surrounded by a plurality of fixing units of the circuit substrate.
However, in the technology described above, although deformation of the circuit substrate toward a side opposite an ink tank side can be regulated, there is a possibility that the circuit substrate is deformed so as to be bent toward the ink tank side. In a case where the ink tank is replaceable in the ink cartridge, when the circuit substrate is deformed so as to be bent toward the ink cartridge side, a part of the ink cartridge collides with the circuit substrate when installing the ink cartridge, and whereby the ink cartridge cannot be set to a predetermined position.
In addition, when the circuit substrate is deformed, contact pressure between a contact terminal of a connector and a conductive connection portion of the ink cartridge side and a conductive connection portion of the circuit substrate side changes, and accordingly, there is a possibility that information on the ink cartridge cannot be correctly transferred to the circuit substrate side due to generation of non-conductive spots.